Monday, August 13, 2007

For the record

Caught the Pat Racette Buddahfly at Ravinia this weekend. Pat was in glorious form--I never really noticed how sweet her voice is in the middle regions and the slash and burn stuff was as thrilling as hoped for. Having the CSO for the band was also a luxury--the perfect antidote to the usual sinking feeling that opera orchestras are phoning it in on this one.

I thought rookie James Valenti, the Peenkertone standing in for Frank Lopardo was a real highlight, though John von Rhein thought he was a lightweight up top, which I may have chalked up to the vagaries of the amplification system out on the lawn. I also can't quite decide if he is really really good looking or merely opera hot, to revive an old term. His little black and white picture in the program argued strongly for the former, but this might indicate the latter...

3 comments:

I looked at a few different pictures of him online (meanwhile trying to remember if he's the tenor we liked in the NYCO Gala last season) and I get the feeling he's like the statues they put atop buildings: the features are rather exaggerated, so from a distance, he's really striking. This works out well if you spend a lot of time onstage. Actually though there's one shot from a Boheme that suggests he's just plain old dreamy.